Getty Images / Jonathan Gitlin
In November, we learned that the National Road Traffic Safety Administration had opened an engineering analysis of a potential defect in Tesla’s popular Models S and X battery powered electric vehicles. On Wednesday, the other shoe fell when NHTSA informed the American automaker that it has to recall 158,000 vehicles to repair defective touch screens.
The problem concerns a component of the vehicle’s infotainment systems, called the Media Control Unit. Buried in the MCU is an 8 GB NAND eMMC flash memory chip, which can only be recorded a finite number of times. When that number of read / write cycles is reached – something that takes between three and four years, depending on how far the car is driven – the touch screen dies. And, unfortunately, this is a real problem in a car where the touchscreen is the way almost all controls are accessed.
Not being able to surf the Internet in your car or broadcast a podcast is obviously an inconvenience, especially in a high-end vehicle. But NHTSA is more concerned that if the touch screen dies, functions like the backup camera and the window defog will also be lost, as well as audible alerts for other security systems on board.
The problem is well known among the Tesla community, affecting any Model S built between 2012 and 2018, and Model Xs built between 2016 and 2018. After NHTSA received 537 complaints from owners, it asked Tesla if it had more information about the scope of the problem. Yes, delivering records of thousands of complaints and more than 12,000 MCU replacements.
NHTSA has now taken unusual steps to tell Tesla that it must collect the 158,000 affected vehicles, according to Reuters. “[D]During our analysis of the data, Tesla provided confirmation that all units will inevitably fail due to the finite storage capacity of the memory device, “NHTSA told Reuters. NHTSA also noted that Tesla attempted to resolve the issue with patches of software, but these were “procedurally and substantially insufficient” and the law requires automakers to recall vehicles that contain safety defects.
Tesla does not have a press office to contact for comment, and the company has not made a statement on its Twitter or that of CEO Elon Musk. Since then, the company has redesigned the MCU to use a 64 GB eMMC, so the newer vehicles should not be affected. The most popular 3 and Y models are not affected by this problem.